


Good Times

by academy_x



Series: in which Julian visits David [1]
Category: New X-Men: Academy X, X-Men (Comicverse)
Genre: Gen, Post Young Avengers vol. 2, romantic undertones
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-08
Updated: 2016-12-08
Packaged: 2018-09-07 08:57:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,384
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8791462
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/academy_x/pseuds/academy_x
Summary: Julian visits David, and they go out for drinks.





	

Julian enters David's apartment like he owns the place, or maybe like he's considering buying it, with the way he is critically inspecting everything. He tosses his bag in the direction of a convenient corner. It floats the rest of the way on its own, held up by Julian's telekinesis. Showoff, David thinks and scoffs. He smiles and raises a hand in greeting. He and Julian aren't exactly on hug-terms. Julian smiles back, like he is actually excited to see David and not just looking for a place to stay while he's in Chicago.

"Jesus, this place looks like something out of an ikea-catalogue. I mean, have you ever had people over?" Julian asks.

David doesn't answer and pushes his self-consciousness about the bare walls away. Julian has a point, but David is not telling him that. He rarely has guests over, and the place looks a bit sterile. He'd tried hanging a couple of prints once, but that had just made it worse, given the place a sort of waiting room aesthetic.

"David Alleyne, more like David Alone, am I right?" Julian says.

He's grinning like he just made the best joke ever and unconsciously looking around for someone to high-five, David notices.

"We are literally hanging out right now." David says.

Julian shrugs noncommittally and busies himself with poking through all of David's stuff. He pulls out book after book, stuffing them back in haphazardly. David makes a mental note to reorganize his bookshelf after Julian has left. He's only in town for the weekend. Two days can be very long, David thinks.

Julian makes both of them coffee without asking. He is familiarizing himself with David's kitchen, figuring out where the milk is and lamenting the David doesn't own a milk frother. His hands go flying through the air, while he talks about anything and everything. David has been a little worried about Julian's visit and the inevitable awkward silence, but it looks like it isn't going to be a problem. Julian can talk enough for the two of them, and even though ninety percent of what he says is bullshit, the remaining ten are entertaining.

"How have you been, Prodigy? I can't believe you left the X-Men that's like... shit. Well, I can believe you left them, I can't believe you didn't go to college afterwards." Julian says, looking everywhere but at David.

David wants to say that it's not that simple, but gets caught up on Julian calling him Prodigy. He stays silent. He'd tried college one time. He couldn't sit through the mind-numbingly boring entry level classes on basic math and physics, but couldn't take the classes he wanted to without them. He'd half-considered faking some exam-papers and skipping straight to advanced biochemistry, but David was too honest for that.

"Hey, we should do something, play a game, go out for drinks... wait! Let's go to a pub quiz, you could totally destroy something like that." Julian suggests, hands waving in excitement.

David thinks why not, and agrees. There's something about Julian's almost endless supply of energy that David privately admires. He pours a moderate amount of milk in his coffee and takes a sip. Julian drinks his black with three spoonfuls of sugar. Apparently coffee with foamless milk is not worth drinking.

They talk about old times, and it's almost not sad, even remembering the dead. They don't dwell on the subject, moving on the lighter memories like sneaking out at night or that time Cyclops had to teach sex-ed. Julian is on his phone during the conversation, presumably looking up bars that have quiz-nights. He might as well be checking twitter. David resists the urge to glance at the screen.

"I can't believe you joined the Avengers." Julian says.

"Young Avengers." David corrects.

"Whatever, I always figured if anyone was gonna it would be Vic." Julian says.

David laughs at that.

Afternoon turns to evening, and Julian decides they should head out. David lends him a fancy green shirt that almost fits. It hang a little loose on Julian. He decides to compensate by hovering in the air, pretending to be taller than David.

"The green suits you." David says, mostly to soothe Julian's ego, but also because it's true.

They go out to drink and quiz, and it's wonderful. David finds himself getting way more into it than expected. He's careful to read Julian's body language and not just blurt out the answer. Sometimes Julian even gets there first which is definitely only because David is storing so much information in his brain that it's hard to remember everything at once.

Julian knows the answers to some really weird things, it turns out, and he smiles broadly every time he gets another question right. They toast in celebration, clinking their glasses together hard and spilling on the table. They work well as a team, apparently. All that competitive energy flows together and makes them stronger. If only he had known when they were young, David can't help but think.

After taking first place and utterly crushing the competition, Julian suggests they go somewhere else, go dancing. David leads him to a club nearby, and hours pass, dancing with each other, with attractive strangers. The music is almost too-loud, making conversation impossible. David finds he gets along with Julian swimmingly, as long as they don't actually have to talk.

It gets late, and the sky turns black. They stumble back to David's apartment. David has an arm slung over Julian's shoulder, and Julian is mumbling about how sad it is most pugs can't breathe properly. Suddenly he looks David straight in his eyes, face clear and serious.

"You know you can come to the X-Men, right? They don't abandon their own no matter what. Besides us X-Kids stick together even as we turn into X-Adults." Julian says.

David feels himself choking up. Maybe it's just the alcohol making Julian sound oddly profound and sincere. He doesn't trust voice, so he nods.

"Yeah, yeah, that's good." Julian mumbles.

They stagger up the stairs and through the door. Julian collapses on the couch. David means to sit down too, but he miscalculates and slides to the floor next to it. He should get up and go to bed, maybe even shower first, but the floor feels really comfortable. David's back is leaning against the couch, and he can feel Julian's hand on his head, rubbing circles into his scalp. David wonders briefly how that happened, but decides not to care. It feels nice, and he is so tired.

Julian is uncharacteristically silent, and David wonders if he's fallen asleep. He reaches up and pokes him inquisitively. Julian glares daggers at him. Not asleep then. David blinks his big innocent eyes and raises an eyebrow in question.

"Don't look at me like that, I'm just thinking about Utopia... right before the split. I said some thing I really shouldn't have. Probably said a lot I shouldn't have before that too." Julian says.

David frowns, surprised.

"I'm sorry, I guess." Julian continues.

"Is okay..." David says, slurring a little bit. "It's not like you were the only one who said some shit."

Julian is half-hanging off the couch, and David has twisted his body, so that they can maintain this eye-contact. Julian nods once, and turns away. He lies back down, face buried in a pillow, and starts snoring a minute later, taking the easy way out of the charged conversation. David doesn't move. The gentle snores are soothing somehow, and he's honestly contemplating just sleeping on the floor. Moving is ridiculously difficult.

"Go to sleep, Prodigy." Julian mumbles through the pillow.

David mumbles something unintelligible back. Julian sighs, and with what must be a massive effort of will, he lifts David off the floor and up next to him on the couch. There's barely space on the couch, but it's softer than the floor. David mumbles his thanks. He is quietly impressed by Julian's power, but he's definitely not about to tell him that. Everything is a little fuzzy right now, and David is so tired. Sleeping here seems like the best idea ever. Julian must agree because he's sleeping, for real now, snoring a little. David joins him.

The next morning they both wake up on the floor.

 

**Author's Note:**

> hope you liked my selfindulgent fic about these good boys having a nice time together... it ended up being kinda shippy which im into tbh


End file.
